Thursday, July 31, 2014

Israel's prime minister accuses them of being as bad as al Qaeda, but he isn’t trying to run the group out of Gaza. There’s a good reason why.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his military will not stop until it dismantles a labyrinth of tunnels often burrowed under private homes and even beneath Gaza’s mosques. But Netanyahu has not called for destroying the organization that built those tunnels: Hamas—and he won’t, multiple Israeli officials told The Daily Beast. Which raises the question: Why are Israeli forces in Gaza—at the cost of more than 1,300 lives and a rising tide of global condemnation—in the first place?

(Reuters) - Israel and Islamist militant group Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire in their conflict in the Gaza Strip starting on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

The ceasefire will begin at 8 a.m. local time (1.00 a.m. EDT) on Aug. 1, they said in a joint statement. The statement said "forces on the ground will remain in place" during the truce, implying that Israeli ground forces will not withdraw.

U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry has received assurances that all parties have agreed to the humanitarian ceasefire, the statement said.

CIA employees improperly searched computers used by Senate investigators involved in a multi-year probe of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation measures on terrorism suspects, according to the findings of an internal agency probe that prompted CIA Director John O. Brennan to apologize to lawmakers this week.

The embarrassing admission by the agency stems from a dispute that erupted in public earlier this year when the CIA and the committee traded accusations of illicit spying and security breaches — allegations that led to an extraordinary feud between Brennan and the Senate panel that oversees his agency.

My Comment: I can say this unequivocally .... the polls in Russia have always been consistent .... the biggest fear in Russia is a Third World War. To defend the motherland and fellow Russians .... no problem (there will be wide Russian support) .... to launch and initiate a global war .... a war of choice .... maybe 2% will support it (maybe). But even if Russia made the decision to invade just one member NATO state .... the risk of this becoming a global war are there .... and Russia will end up fighting NATO. There may be some headway .... the Baltics, Ukraine, parts of Poland .... but any sustainable offensive will peter out .... and the blow-back will be intense and immense. From my perspective .... this British report is just an attempt to get more money for defense budgets and programs.

(Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament rejected Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk's resignation on Thursday and finally passed legislation he said was needed to finance an army offensive against a separatist rebellion in the east and avert a national default on its debts.

The assembly's about-turn on laws it refused to back a week earlier offers relief to Kiev's Western backers, who had feared Ukraine was sliding deeper into political chaos and might renege on an international bailout as it heads into an election period.

"There are two pieces of news today. The first is that Argentina has defaulted, and the second is that Ukraine has not defaulted and never will," Yatseniuk told the chamber, making clear he would stay in office.

A Palestinian firefighter participates in efforts to put out a fire in a van, which witnesses said was hit in an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City July 31, 2014. Credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Inside Gaza and Israel: Two Photographers, One War -- Time

As the death toll rises in the war between Israel and Hamas, TIME LightBox profiles two photographers who have spent weeks covering the opposing sides: Andrew Katz interviewed Oliver Weiken of European Pressphoto Agency and Olivier Laurent spoke with Getty Images’ Andrew Burton.

The main border crossing between Israel and Gaza is a long, open-air, fenced corridor that begins in a town called Erez. Since 2007, when the militant group Hamas took control of the coastal enclave half the size of New York City’s five boroughs, Israel has enforced a blockade. Its purpose: to block in Hamas, but it also seals off 1.8 million Palestinians who, in effect, have nowhere to hide when war comes.

For Oliver Weiken, a German photographer based in Tel Aviv, there was “no question” he intended to cover the battle from Gaza. It was just a matter of getting in. He was working the World Cup in Brazil when the fatal abductions of three Israeli teenagers led to an Israeli crackdown on the West Bank and Gaza, followed by an increase in rocket fire from Hamas. The revenge killing of a Palestinian youth exacerbated the situation, with the militant group escalating its attacks and Israel responding with a large-scale military offensive on July 8.

The hacktivist group Anonymous have claimed responsibility for disabling a series of Israeli government websites, including that of its national intelligence agency, Mossad, as a show of solidarity for the Palestinian cause in Gaza.

Global access to mossad.gov.il ceased at 00:40 GMT this morning, Russia Today reported. However, a Twitter account associated with the Anonymous hashtag called @AnonymousGlobo reported the Mossad site as “down” much earlier, at 09:50 GMT on 27 July.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at Israel in vitriolic terms on Wednesday, referring to Israel as a “festering Zionist tumor.”

Rouhani, who has been championed by Western media as a moderate reformer who could change Iran’s extremist ways, appears to be adopting a violent tone similar to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has advocated for the complete destruction of Israel in recent days.

“Today, this festering Zionist tumor has opened once again and has turned the land of olives into destruction and blood and littered the land with the body parts of Palestinian children,” Rouhani was quoted as saying in a statement that was translated by the Brookings Institution.

Is Israel Planning To Widen Its Gaza Offensive? An Extra 16,000 Reservists Are Called Up As Aerial Bombardments Continue -- Daily Mail

* Decision to call-up extra troops comes amid stalled efforts to end the war
* Offensive in Gaza has already claimed the lives of at least 1,360 Palestinians
* Yesterday alone total of 116 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed
* Israel continued offensive this morning, hitting a mosque next to UN school
* Egyptian efforts to broker ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have stalled

Israel is to call up an additional 16,000 military reservists, allowing them to potentially widen the Gaza offensive in a war that has already claimed the lives of at least 1,360 Palestinians and 59 Israelis.

This morning Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Gaza campaign would not end until every tunnel used by Hamas militants to attack Israeli towns or military targets had been destroyed.

The call-up follows another day of intense fighting in the territory, during which tank shells struck a U.N school where civilians were sheltering, and air strikes tore through a crowded shopping area.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay attends a news conference at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 2, 2013.

UN: Israel, Hamas May Be Guilty of War Crimes -- Voice of America

GENEVA — The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, says the targeting of civilian infrastructure or the use of civilian structures for military purposes violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. She warns both Israel and Hamas may be guilty of war crimes in breaching these humanitarian principles. U.N. figures show civilians, including many children and women, account for 74 percent of the more than 1,200 Palestinians who have been killed. Nearly 60 Israelis have been killed, including two civilians.

Civilians are bearing the brunt of the war in Gaza, which is now into its 24th day.

MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - NATO is not prepared to deal with a military threat from Russia, although the risk of attack is very low, according to the cross-party Defense Committee of UK lawmakers report.

"The risk of attack by Russia on a NATO Member State, whilst still small, is significant…NATO has been too complacent about the threat from Russia, and it is not well-prepared," Rory Stewart, chair of the cross-party Defense Committee said in a report.

The report suggests that the nature of Russian tactics is changing fast and now includes cyberattacks and information warfare.

(Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday blacklisted two North Korean shipping firms that it said tried to conceal arms shipments from Cuba to North Korea, following a similar move by the United Nations.

The ship, Chong Chon Gang, was discovered last July near the Panama Canal hiding a large amount of arms, including two MiG-21 jet fighters under 200,000 bags of sugar, which the United States said showed a clear attempt to circumvent U.N. and U.S. sanctions against North Korea.

North Korea is under an array of sanctions for nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006 in defiance of global demands to stop.

Land For Gas: Merkel And Putin Discussed Secret Deal Could End Ukraine Crisis -- The Independent

Merkel and Putin negotiate to trade Crimea’s sovereignty for guarantees on energy security and trade

Germany and Russia have been working on a secret plan to broker a peaceful solution to end international tensions over the Ukraine.

The Independent can reveal that the peace plan, being worked on by both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, hinges on two main ambitions: stabilising the borders of Ukraine and providing the financially troubled country with a strong economic boost, particularly a new energy agreement ensuring security of gas supplies.

More controversially, if Ms Merkel’s deal were to be acceptable to the Russians, the international community would need to recognise Crimea’s independence and its annexation by Russia, a move that some members of the United Nations might find difficult to stomach.

My Comment: On paper .... this sounds like a good deal .... but it is not happening that way. To begin .... Germany is denying all reports of a 'land for gas' deal with Putin. But even more worrisome is that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin sine the shit-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 .... in short .... no talks there. But even if there was an agreement .... I know that the pro-separatists rebels in eastern Ukraine would never agree to it .... even if it means losing all support from Moscow.

No one has admitted responsibility for firing the sophisticated missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 people over Ukraine on July 17. But untrained rebels could probably have done it with a little practice. There are even instructions online, making it possible for nearly anyone who comes into possession of one of these systems — anywhere in the world — to use it.

Washington and Kiev both blame Russian-backed separatists from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for attacking the plane with a 9k37 BUK missile system. These rebels had bragged about possessing the weapon before the attack.

The BUK is in the upper tier of the world’s antiaircraft weapons. It’s considerably more advanced and has more complicated procedures to fire than point-and-shoot, shoulder-fired missiles. Its missiles can climb to an altitude of 46,000 feet at Mach 3 speeds, packing more than a 154-pound high-explosive warhead.

The United States upped the diplomatic pressure this week by saying Russia has violated provisions of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty - or INF - a treaty considered to be the cornerstone of the U.S.-Russian nuclear disarmament structure.

This is a serious accusation, analysts say, and one that has roots dating back to the close of the Cold War.

The INF treaty was signed in December 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev. It entered into force in June 1988.

Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association, a private research firm, said it was a historic treaty because it eliminated an entire class of weapons

My Comment: The world has changed a lot since the mid 1980s. It was a historic treaty then .... but sadly missile proliferation and more advanced missiles are now changing the landscape and making that treaty irrelevant.

(Reuters) - The United States has allowed Israel, waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, to tap a local U.S. arms stockpile in the past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday.

The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a program managed by the U.S. military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for U.S. use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.

Israel, however, did not cite an emergency when it made its latest request about 10 days ago, the defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli Defense Forces now have Gaza's infrastructure in their sights

Israeli officials have said in the past week that their main goal in the war against Hamas in Gaza is to destroy as many of what it calls “terror tunnels,” the underground passages built by the militant group that have repeatedly been used to infiltrate Israel. But following a day in which Hamas militants managed to kill 10 Israeli soldiers, Israel responded Tuesday with massive air strikes that seemed aimed at both major infrastructure as well as the visible symbols of Hamas’s power in the Gaza Strip.

In overnight strikes on Monday by aircraft, tanks and navy gunboats, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacked 150 targets in Gaza, including the home and office of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh’s home, the influential Shujaiyeh battalion commander’s home and the Ministry of Finance, as well as al-Aqsa Radio and al-Aqsa Television, two media outlets operated by Hamas. The IDF said it attacked two Hamas command centers and four weapons-storage sites hidden inside mosques and a tunnel Tuesday, before targeting five mosques overnight where it said Hamas had hidden weapons.

Read more ....
My Comment: To live in Gaza must be pure hell right now .... this is why this analysis from the Jerusalem Post is probably right. My prediction .... Hamas will probably maintain it's support within Gaza as this conflict drags on .... but months after this war has ended .... and the miserable conditions continue .... who is to say where this support may then be.

Palestinians gather near the minaret of a mosque that police said was destroyed by an Israeli Air strike in Gaza City July 30, 2014. Credit: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Arab Leaders, Viewing Hamas as Worse Than Israel, Stay Silent -- New York Times

CAIRO — Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.

Not this time.

After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

“The Arab states’ loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,” the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents.

Assets of Russian oligarchs Arkady Rotenberg and Yury Kovalchuk were frozen by the European Union in its effort to pressure President Vladimir Putin to stop supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Rotenberg, who helps control SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank OAO, and Kovalchuk, the biggest shareholder in OAO Bank Rossiya, were among eight people that the EU added yesterday to its blacklist of individuals and organizations being punished for the Ukrainian unrest. Three entities -- Russian National Commercial Bank, weapons maker Almaz-Antey and airline Dobrolet -- also were added, according to the EU’s Official Journal.

My Comment: So some of these oligarchs cannot go to their private estates on the French Riviera to vacation this summer .... no big deal for these guys .... they will just go somewhere else. But there will be an impact on the general Russian economy as sanctions start to dry up credit markets. This is going to hurt Russian economic growth .... especially in the energy and financial sectors.

Standard & Poor’s declared Argentina in default after the government missed a deadline for paying interest on $13 billion of restructured bonds.

The South American country failed to get the $539 million payment to bondholders after a U.S. judge ruled that the money couldn’t be distributed unless a group of hedge funds holding defaulted debt also got paid. Argentina, in default for the second time in 13 years, has about $200 billion in foreign-currency debt, including $30 billion of restructured bonds, according to S&P.

Terrorist confesses he trained in Malaysia to conduct raids on Israeli civilians from the air; 100 Hamas men captured to date.

A highly trained Hamas operative captured by the IDF during the ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip told investigators that he had prepared to carry out a terror attack against Israeli civilians using a paraglider, the Shin Bet security service said Wednesday.

The Hamas detainee, who was recruited to the Islamist terror group in 2007 and joined one of the group’s special units in 2010, had taken part in a weeklong military-style exercise in Malaysia, along with 10 other members of the group, the Shin Bet said in a statement. During the exercise, which included paragliding training, the Hamas squad focused on perfecting raids from the air.

My Comment: The revelation that Hamas was planning a paragliding attack is (in my opinion) far fetch .... but what caught my attention was the revelation that they were trained in Malaysia. It makes one wonder on who in Malaysia is helping Hamas to plan these attacks.

About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.